'Mad Men's "Time & Life" Comes Down To Dollars

Sunday's episode of Mad Men brought about the end of Sterling Cooper and Partners, and it feels like we've seen this storyline before. Doesn't it kinda feel like every other season the firm has to reinvent itself? With only a few episodes left of Mad Men 's Season 7 run till its grand finale, it looks like this merger will be the one to stick forever. The end credits song, which is just as important as everything else in the episode, plays a tune by Dean Martin titled, "Money Burns A Hole In My Pocket." It's fitting, since as the firm falls apart, they realize they don't have the money they used to — they can't even afford their building lease anymore.

During the episode we learn a few things about Sterling Cooper and Partners. For starters, it's being swallowed by McCann Erickson. Everyone is going to get shuffled around, literally, because the lease on their office space is up. Sterling Cooper and Partners has got to go. The partners also discuss money, and the fact that they signed a four-year contract, so technically they have to go along with this merger. No matter what they do, they're going to take a pay cut and probably lose a lot during it.

The end credit song of "Money Burns A Hole In My Pocket" is so fitting, and so ironic. Dean Martin — swoon — since about how he has all this money, so he's going to buy all this stuff. You've probably heard this idiom before, and you've probably felt money burning a hole in your pocket, too. It might even be a little jab at the expense of Sterling Cooper and Partners, since for a while they did have money. They were able to buy things. They expanded to California. They went through the money maybe a little too quickly, though, and now here they are being taken over by another company (again). No one bothered to save some ad money for a rainy day.

The song is originally performed by Martin, and it was used in the 1954 film, Living It Up. Check out the video for it below, and imagine Don singing this to himself in his empty apartment at the end of the day.

Image: Justina Mintz/AMC